Christians are fleeing Iraq and Christianity risks disappearing from the country, says a senior Baghdad archbishop, reiterating appeals made recently to Western churches to intercede with their governments about the Iraqis' plight.

A Baghdad-based British Anglican priest has told a US news network that Christians are considerably worse off now than they were during the regime of the late Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former dictator, whose deposition he welcomed.

I have been travelling in the Philippines where news of increased troop levels and warfare in Iraq reaches us. Although it has been many months since I was in Baghdad, where I listened to the stories of detainees, I have a clear image of the increased burden of violence. I imagine with horror the columns of military vehicles weaving their way in narrow streets where homes and storefronts of my friends' neighbourhoods abound.